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INCENTIVES KEY TO CONQUERING ICE

Summarizes some of the papers presented at the Man in Cold Water Conference Montreal 1969, sponsored by McGill Univ and Canada Dept of Industry Trade and Commerce. These papers deal with techniques, equipment and programs required for discovery and development of offshore resources in Canada in ice-covered waters. Permanent structures protected by rotating streamlined fronts to meet the ice in the Beaufort sea--Mackenzie Delta area, and artificial and natural ice islands used as drilling platforms are cited. Development of continuous echograms in ice-covered water and reconnaissance submarines specially designed and equipped for marine geologic research are discussed, as are sea-bottom working systems and submarine tankers. Small, battery-powered submersibles like the International Hydrodynamics Co., Ltd. (Vancouver, B.C.) Pisces series I-V are noted; they have side-scanning radar, television cameras and arms to recover bottom samples, but are limited by their inability to surface through more than a thin ice cover. The formation of a Canadian Oceanography Institute was proposed at the end of the Conference.